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Defending our voting rights in Nashville

Posted
Friday, January 18, 2019 1:32 pm

"I don't care who does the electing, as long as I do the nominating." This is a quotation from William 'Boss' Tweed of Tammany Hall, the leader of what many believe was the most corrupt political machine in the history of our nation.

Ryan Williams wants to bring back those days of an elite political class, a group of people who claim to be more qualified to choose our leaders than average citizens. He proposes to cut the people out of the critical process of choosing the candidates who will represent their interests in general elections.

Up until the present, the history of our nation has been one of expanding rights, with more people winning the right to vote and bringing greater diversity to our representative bodies. Now, however, with gerrymandering, voter suppression, single party rule in a majority of our states, and hyper partisanship; the right of the people to choose their own leaders is being steadily eroded.

Meanwhile, much of the people's work is being ignored and, while Williams bemoans the gridlock holding our federal government hostage, he fails to acknowledge that it is strong partisanship which is responsible for that gridlock.

Williams calls his bill campaign finance reform, as if money or outside interests will somehow no longer be a factor in our elections. In fact, corruption will be simpler. It's far easier to wield influence when you don't have to spend time or money trying to convince people at the grass roots level but only have to worry about a few dozen elected officials within a political party. It will make more money available to fewer recipients and give greater power to well organized special interest groups.

Only a robust, independent press was able to expose the corruption of Boss Tweed. Unfortunately, today's press is under attack from political leaders and is just as susceptible to the partisanship that rules politics today, with newspapers and television stations supporting a particular perspective rather than reporting the whole story. The press also faces tremendous economic pressures in this age of the internet.

In the end, it will be up to the people themselves to decide whether to defend our hard won rights or watch passively as the American experiment gradually devolves into just another country ruled by self serving elites.